emperor qin shihuang’s mausoleum and the terra-cotta warriors and horses museum
emperor qin shihuang (259-210b.c.) had ying as his surname and zheng as his given name. he name to the throne of the qin at age 13, and took the helm of the state at age of 22. by 221 b.c., he had annexed the six rival principalities of qi, chu, yan, han, zhao and wei, and established the first feudal empire in china’s history.
in the year 221 b.c., when he unified the whole country, ying zheng styled himself emperor. he named himself shihuang di, the first emperor in the hope that his later generations be the second, the third even the one hundredth and thousandth emperors in proper order to carry on the hereditary system. since then, the supreme feudal rulers of china’s dynasties had continued to call themselves huang di, the emperor.
after he had annexed the other six states, emperor qin shihuang abolished the enfeoffment system and adopted the prefecture and county system. he standardized legal codes, written language, track, currencies, weights and measures. to protect against harassment by the hun aristocrats. emperor qin shihuang ordered the great wall be built. all these measures played an active role in eliminating the cause of the state of separation and division and strengthening the unification of the whole country as well as promotion the development of economy and culture. they had a great and deep influence upon china’s 2,000 year old feudal society.
emperor qin shihuang ordered the books of various schools burned except those of the qin dynasty’s history and culture, divination and medicines in an attempt to push his feudal autocracy in the ideological field. as a result, china’s ancient classics had been devastated and destroy. moreover, he once ordered 460 scholars be buried alive. those events were later called in history“the burning of books and the burying of confucian scholars.”
emperor qin shihuang，for his own pleasure, conscribed several hundred thousand convicts and went in for large-scale construction and had over seven hundred palaces built in the guanzhong plain. these palaces stretched several hundred li and he sought pleasure from one palace to the other. often nobody knew where he ranging treasures inside the tomb, were enclosed alive.
emperor qin shihuang’s mausoleum has not yet been excavated. what looks like inside could noly be known when it is opened. however, the three pits of the terra-cotta warriot excavated outside the east gate of the outer enclosure of the necropolis can make one imagine how magnificent and luxurious the structure of emperor qin shihuang’s mausoleum was.
no.1 pit was stumbled upon in march 1974 when villagers of xiyang village of yanzhai township, lintong county, sank a well 1.5km east of the mausoleum. in 1976, no.2 and 3 pits were found 20m north of no.1 pit respectively after the drilling survey. the terra-cotta warriors and horses are arrayed according to the qin dynasty battle formation, symbolizing the troops keeping vigil beside the mausoleum. this discovery aroused much interest both at home and abroad. in 1975, a museum, housing the site of no.1 and covering an area of 16,300 square meters was built with the permission of the state council. the museum was formally opened to public on oct.1, the national day, 1979.
no.1 pit is 230 meters long from east to west, 62m wide from north to south and 5m deep , covering a total area of 14,260 square meters. it is an earth-and-wood structure in the shape of a tunnel. there are five sloping entrances on the eastern and western sides of the pit respectively. the pit is divided into eleven corridors by ten earthen partition walls, and the floors are paved with bricks. thick rafters were placed onto the walls (but now one can only see their remains), which were covered with mats and then fine soil and earth. the battle formation of the qin dynasty, facing east. in the east end are arrayed three lines of terra-cotta warriors, 70 pieces in each, totaling 210 pieces. they are supposed to be the van of the formation. immediately behind them are 38 columns of infantrymen alternating with war chariots in the corridors, each being 180m long. they are probably the main body of the formation. there is one line of warriors in the left, right and west ends respectively, facing outwards. they are probably the flanks and the rear. there are altogether 27 trial trench, it is assumed that more than 6,000 clay warriors and horses could be unearthed from no.1 pit.
no.2 pit sis about half the size of no.1 pit, covering about 6,000 square meters trail diggings show this is a composite formation of infantry, cavalry and chariot soldiers, from which roughly over 1,000 clay warriors, and 500 chariots and saddled horses could be unearthed. the 2,000-year-old wooden chariots are already rotten. but their shafts, cross yokes, and wheels, etc. left clear impressions on the earth bed. the copper parts of the chariots still remain. each chariot is pulled by four horses which are one and half meters high and two metres long. according to textual research, these clay horses were sculptures after the breed in the area of hexi corridor. the horses for the cavalrymen were already saddled, but with no stirups.
no.3 pit covers an area of 520m2 with only four horses, one chariot and 68 warriors, supposed to be the command post of the battle formation. now, no.2 and 3 pits have been refilled, but visitors can see some clay figures and weapons displayed in the exhibition halls in the museum that had been unearthed from these two pits. the floors of both no.1 and 2 pits were covered with a layer of silt of 15 to 20cm thick. in these pits, one can see traces of burnt beams everywhere, some relics which were mostly broken. analysis shows that the pits were burned down by xiang yu, leader of a peasant army. all of the clay warriors in the three pits held real weapons in their hands and face east, showing emperor qin shihuang’s strong determination of wiping out the six states and unifying the whole country.
the height of the terra-cotta warriors varies from 1.78m, the shortest, to 1.97m, the tallest. they look healthy and strong and have different facial expressions. probably they were sculpted by craftsmen according to real soldiers of the qin dynasy. they organically combined the skills of round engraving, bas-relief and linear engraving, and utilized the six traditional folk crafts of sculpturing, such as hand-moulding, sticking, cutting, painting and so on. the clay models were then put in kilns, baked and colour-painted. as the terra-cotta figures have beeb burnt and have gone through the natural process of decay, we can’t see their original gorgeous colours. however, most of the terra-cotta figures bear the trace of the original colours, and few of them are still as bright as new. they are found to be painted by mineral dyestuffs of vermilion, bright red, pink dark green, powder green, purple, blue, orange, black and white colours.
thousands of real weapons were unearthed from these terra-cotta army pits, including broad knives, swords, spears, dagger-axes, halberds, bows, crossbows and arrowheads. these weapons were exquisitely made. some of theme are still very sharp, analyses show that they are made of alloys of copper and tin, containing more than ten kinds of other metals. since their surfaces were treated with chromium, they are as bright as new, though buried underground for more than 2,000 years. this indicates that qin dynasty’s metallurgical technology and weapon-manufacturing technique already reached quite a high level.
in december 1980, two teams of large painted bronze chariots and horses were unearthed 20 metres west of the mound of emperor qin shihuang’s mausoleum. these single shaft four-horse chariots each comprises 3,462 spare parts, and has a body with two compartments, one behind the other, and an elliptical umbrella like canopy. the four horses harnessed to the chariot are 65-67 centimeters tall. the restored bronze chariots and horses are exact imitations of true chariot, horse and driver in half life-size.
the chariots and horses are decorated with coloured drawings against white background. they have been fitted with more than 1,500 piecese of gold and silvers and decorations, looking luxurious, splendid and graceful. probably they were meant for the use of emperor qin shihuang’s soul to go on inspection. the bronze chariots and horses were made by lost wax casting, which shows a high level of technology. for instance, the tortoise-shell-like canopy is about 4mm thick, and the window is only 1mm thick on which are many small holes for ventilation. according to a preliminary study, the technology of manufacturing the bronze chariots and horses has involved casting, welding, reveting, inlaying embedding and chiseling. the excavation of the bronze chariots and horses provides extremely valuable material and data for the textual research of the metallurgical technique, the mechanism of the chariot and technological modeling of the qin dynasty.
no.2 bronze chariot and horses now on display were found broken into 1,555 pieces when excavated. after two-and-half years’ careful and painstaking restoration by archaeologists and various specialists, they were formally exhibited in the museum on october 1, 1983. no.1 bronze chariot hand horses are on display from 1988.
the great mosque at huajue lane
the mosque is a major spot for religious activities of over 60.000 moslems in xi’an, likewise, an important cultural relic protected by the provincial people’s government. unlike the arabic mosques, with splendid domes, the minarets reaching into the clouds, the coulourful engraved sketches with dazzling patterns, the mosque here in xi’an possesses much chinese traditional touch in both its design and artistic outlook; besides the style peculiar to islamic mosques, this mosque also holds characteristics of chinese pavilions with painted beams and engraved ridgepoles.
however, any further discussion about the mosque will be futile unless anything of the introduction of islam into china is brought up.
islam as a religious order was founded in the early period of the 7th century a.d. and was introduced to china in the mid-600s. at that time, arabian merchants and travelers came to the northwest of china by way of persia and afghanistan and thus established diplomatic, trade, and military contacts with china. in the meantime, another route saw a batch of sea voyagers through bangladesh bay and the malacca strait to china’s guangzhou, quanzhou, huangzhou, yangzhou and other cities where many of them settled down and married the local women who later gave birth to babies who then became moslems.
however, massive immigration of the moslems to china did not take place until as late as the early period of the 13th century, when genghis khan, as a result of his expedition against the west, had conquered vast expanses of land stretching from central asia to eastern europe, including the north of iran. many of the moslems in the conquered areas were thus forced to enlist and later settled in china.
among the enlisted many were soldiers, and some were smiths and officials who were called the hui people in the history books on the yuan dynasty. the hui people later followed kublai khan down to the south, helping him unifying china and then establish the yuan dynasty. in the wake of the conquest, islam spread all over china and mosques began to appear everywhere. in the yuan dynasty, many moslems held positions both in the military and civilian organs of the country. and a lot of the moslems took part in zhu yuanzhang’s uprising in the early 14th century and made great contributions to the founding of the ming dynasty. therefore, all the emperors of the dynasty issued mandates to protect islam, and to set up mosques in praise of the moslems for their feats. in the early 16th century, islam predominated qinghai on the minority nationalities including the huis, the uygurs, the kazaks, the kirgizes, the tajiks, the tartars, the ozbeks, the dong xiangs, the salars and the bonans. the moslems in xi’an are mainly the huis, being a small portion out of the ten million in china.
the mosque at hua jue lane is the largest in xi’an, and at the same time, it is also one of the earliest built on a comparatively large scale, and well preserved mosques in china.
according to “the stele on the building of the mosque”, the mosque is said to be built in the tang dynasty. however, the architectural style of the mosque suggests a possible building dating back to the ming dynasty. the four courtyards of the mosque cover an area of more than 12,000 square meters, out of which about 4,000 are occupied by various structures. the still intact wooden front memorial gateway of the front yard, built at the turn of the 17th century, with glazed tiles on the top, spectacular corners and upturned eaves, is about 9 metres high, and has a history of about 360 years. the stone memorial gateway in the center of the second courtyard is flanked with a tail stele on either side with dragons carved on each, recording the repair work ever since the building of the mosque. on the back of one of the steles are engraved characters by the master calligrapher mi fu, “may buddhism fill the universe”, on the other, “royal -bestowed”by dong qichang, another master of the same art of the ming dynasty. they are treasures in chinese calligraphy. at the entrance of the third courtyard is an imperial built hall, where a “month tablet”, showing the calculation of the hui calendars in arabic, is stored. it was compiled by a man in charge of the mosque called xiao mining in the early period of the qing dynasty. a three –storeyed octagonal wooden structure called “retrospection tower”also stands in the center of the courtyard, which has the same function as the minaret in islamic temples in arabic countries, and which is a place from where orders were sent to call the moslems to come to worship. respectively, on the south and north wings of the tower, are a reception chamber and a scripture chamber, both elegantly laid out. the five wooden houses, which are called “water houses”in the southwest section of the mosque are the place where the believers bathe themselves before they attend their services. and in side the fourth courtyard there is a structure called “the pavilion of phoenix”, a place where the worshipers used to wait for the services. the pavilion, in fact, is a compound structure of three small buildings. the six-gabled structure of the central part, adjoining the two three-gabled buildings on each side looks very much like a flying phoenix, and hence its name. just at the back of the pavilion, there is a fishpond, beyond which is a platform occupying an area as large as 700 m2. across both ends of the platform stands the 1,300 square metered service hall, holding over a thousand worshipers at once. there are over six hundred sunk panels well as the sunk panels, are decorated with patterns of painted trailing plants and arabic letterings. the imam leads his group of worshipers, while facing in the direction of mecca, to chant in koran and to pay their religious homage.
the moslems in china share very much the same customs with their brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world. they worship five times a day: at dawn, at noon, in the afternoon, at dusk, and at night. female worshipers attend their services in a separated place from their brothers, usually at home. moslems pay special attention to their health and see that they always wear clean clothes. they are teetotalers not only of wine, but also of pork and animal blood for in koran pigs have been mentioned four times as being “unclean”. according to koran, a man can have four wives and women should wear veils when they go out. however, except a few places in xinjiang, the chinese practise monogamy and women are veiless when they go out. upon his death, a moslem has to be “thoroughly cleaned”(thoroughly bathed), has to be put on “ke fan”(to be shrouded with a piece of white cloth) and has to be buried coffinless in the ground, with an imam reciting scriptures at the funeral.
the chinese constitution promulgates that freedom of religion of each citizen and freedom of preserving or reforming local customs for every nationality are permitted. and of course, the moslems in china enjoy equal rights with peoples of other nationalities and their religious beliefs and customs are respected everywhere in the country.